Date: Tuesday 12th July 2011
Route: WP, Long Ash, Denham Bridge, Fishacre Woods, Lopwell, Roborogh Down, HQ.
Riders: Keith, Sam, Nick, Dan, Colin, Greg, Gidon, David, James & Steve.
Depart: 19:40
Arrive HQ: 22:15 or 22:30
Distance: 14.6 miles
Weather: Perfect

Another double figure turn out in perfect conditions and tonight we saw the welcome return of David on a mountain bike. After a brief discussion about a route, Westy rolled up with his usual line "anyone got a route", which really means "I've got a route"!! He'd checked out his tide timetable and for once it turned out that he was actually looking at the correct year!

So off we went to Long Ash and as always the group got fragmented before we reached Horrabridge! We soon regrouped. Now the one problem when there is a large attendance is that the odds for an enforced stop increase and at the top of Bast**d Hill Sam lost one screw from his cleat and couldn't get his foot out of the pedal. After a bit of playing around and looking for the screw, we set off and went all of twenty yards before Dan stopped for a puncture! Now this doesn't usually delay us long, but for some strange reason we needed three pumps before we got air into the new tube!!

Down, down and down to Hatch Mill and the nice footpath beside the Tavy which we all pushed our bikes along, naturally. Over Denham Bridge and into the always boggy Fishacre Woods. It was about as dry as I've ever seen it, but soon Sam's shinny new shoes were a dull brown colour!

As time was pressing after our unplanned stops, we took the direct decent to Lopwell down a tricky muddy steep track. Crossing the dam took a lot of the mud off bikes and legs and shoes and on the other side David took time out to chat up a teenage blond in a car who was admiring his legs!

So from sea level we just had to climb the 600 feet to HQ. Sam set the pace and as I tried to keep up with him was unaware that Steve got a puncture and Gidon wasn't feeling so great so missed out on the beer. David arrived at HQ looking a little pooped with the line "give me the Dartmoor Classic any day, far easier"!!!

Reporter: Keith